Washington, D.C—In an exclusive interview with The National Memo, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) challenged Congressional Republicans to open budget talks with Democrats, calling the negotiations an opportunity to showcase “our values.” Expected to assume the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Finance Committee when current chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) retires, Wyden says Democrats must defend programs like Meals on Wheels from sequestration cutbacks, while ending “offensive, outlandish, special interest tax perks” that are “hotwired” by lobbyists.

Wyden spoke candidly with National Memo Editor-in-Chief Joe Conason about Medicare, campaign finance reform, tax reform, and the Affordable Care Act. He discusses his controversial efforts to collaborate with Republican colleagues in an era of polarization, including the new campaign finance reform bill he is co-sponsoring with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — and his perspective on renewed efforts to achieve tax reform.

Wyden calls on Democrats to vocally defend programs for impoverished seniors from sequestration cuts. He predicts that tax reform will not only keep progressive rates but raise new revenues as well — which most Republicans have refused to contemplate in every debate over the budget.

The National Memo will publish the Wyden interview with full audio in its newsletter and website on Monday, May 13.

About The National Memo and the Newsmaker Memo

The National Memo is a daily political newsletter and website that reaches more than 800,000 readers every morning. Edited by best-selling journalist Joe Conason, the memo combines investigative reporting, analysis, and original commentary with columnists such as Jonathan Alter, David Cay Johnston, Gene Lyons, Cynthia Tucker, Connie Schultz, and Leonard Pitts, Jr. The Newsmaker Memo is a new monthly feature that highlights exclusive interviews with leading political and cultural figures.

Digital First Media’s Social Media Wire was developed in concert with Crowdynews, the Dutch technology company specializing in delivering compelling and relevant content from the Social Web that matches a site’s original content.

“When it comes to local news and information, the Social Web is invaluable. Our audiences are not only talking about the stories we produce and the topics we cover but they are adding to the conversation, offering new information and helping to find new angles through their conversations,” said Jim Brady, Editor-in-Chief of Digital First Media. “The collaboration with Crowdynews to develop the Social Media Wire allows us to bring a new dimension of urgency, communication and access to social media channels for our audience. The Social Media Wire brings more voices, more sources to our sites.”

Digital First Media’s Social Media Wire is the first widespread deployment of Crowdynews’ Breaking Burner product which allows automated collection and display of community-specific content from a variety of social media sources, including Twitter, YouTube,Flickr and local sites’ RSS feeds. The Social Media Wire first launched earlier this year on the New Haven Register’s website,NHRegister.com and it is displayed in both a home page widget and on the Social Media Wire channel page.

“It’s been a pleasure to work with Digital First Media to define the needs and approach of this ground-breaking tool,” said Edwin Kuipers, CEO and Co-Founder of Crowdynews. “Digital First Media’s willingness to collaborate and to rapidly test, evaluate and deploy new audience-focused tools will continue to fuel the Company’s growth and Crowdynews is pleased to be part of that growth. We place high value on our partnership.”

About Digital First MediaDigital First Media (www.DigitalFirstMedia.com) is headquartered in New York City, and jointly manages MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company. Digital First Media reaches 61.5 million Americans each month through more than 800 multi-platform products across 18 states.

About MediaNews Group, Inc.MediaNews Group, Inc. (www.medianewsgroup.com) is the nation’s second largest newspaper company as measured by circulation, with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. MediaNews Group and its affiliated companies publish 57 daily newspapers and more than 100 non-daily publications in 11 states.

About Journal Register Company

Journal Register Company is a leader in local news and information in 10 states. The Company’s more than 350 multi-platform products reach an audience of 21 million people each month. For more information visit the company website atwww.JournalRegister.com.

About Digital First VenturesDigital First Ventures (DFV) is focused on helping media entrepreneurs incubate, accelerate and validate their start-up companies in the news, content, sales and audience development space. As a division of Digital First Media – which operates more than 800 media products serving 61.5 million customers each month and annual revenues of more than $1.4 billion – DFV is ideally suited to accelerate value creation for media start-ups.

About CrowdynewsCrowdynews is a Dutch technology company founded in 2010. Its software dynamically generates compelling and relevant content pulled from the social web based on a website’s original content and allows any publisher to extend social media coverage for any piece of content. It enhances and enriches the user experience by encouraging discussion and adding a dimension of timeliness resulting in higher engagement, more page views and site traffic. For more information on Crowdynews, please visithttp://www.Crowdynews.com